Cam Cole: CTE escapes the quiet room

Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun Columnist03.16.2016

Strong safety David Bruton #30 of the Denver Broncos is attended to by trainers after a play that would force him out of the game with a reported concussion during a game against the Oakland Raiders at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on December 28, 2014 in Denver, Colorado.Doug Pensinger
/ Getty Images

NFL senior V-P of health and safety Jeff Miller told a U.S. congressional committee Monday that he agrees a link exists between football and CTE.Doug Pensinger
/ Getty Images

Wonder if Jeff Miller, the National Football League’s senior V-P of health and safety, is already in NFL custody, his mouth duct-taped shut, headed for a cat-o’-nine-tails lashing by commissioner Roger Goodell, possibly at Guantanamo?

Did he really admit, in public, that an established link exists between football and the degenerative brain disease CTE, which has been found in the brains of 90 of 94 deceased NFL players examined by Boston University neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee?

“The answer to that question is certainly yes,” Miller said Monday, when pinned down by Rep. Janice Schakowsky during a roundtable discussion on concussions convened by a U.S. congressional committee.

OOPS! HE MEANT TO SAY…: The NFL quickly issued a backtracking statement, couching Miller’s stunning admission in the “more information needed” terms the league has adopted for the last six years (and which National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman has parroted).

But once on the record, Miller could hardly unsay what he said, and on Tuesday league spokesman Brian McCarthy provided a statement to the Washington Post that said: “The comments made by Jeff Miller yesterday accurately reflect the view of the NFL.”

Miller’s words may put the NFL on the hook, though, and the NHL too, if it is forced to give up its gosh-we-just-don’t-know-enough-about-that-yet stance.

DENY, DENY, DENY: It was a little more than a month ago, before Super Bowl 50, that Dr. Mitch Berger of the NFL’s head, neck and spine committee unequivocally rejected the existence of a clear football-CTE link.

And last year, when asked the CTE question after the death of former player Steve Montador, Bettman famously declared: “From a medical science standpoint, there is no evidence yet that one necessarily leads to the other. I know there are a lot of theories, but if you ask people who study it, they tell you there is no statistical correlation that can definitively make that conclusion.”

TO THE MATTRESSES, BOYS: Both the NFL and NHL — and now the Canadian Football League as well — are being sued by groups of former players seeking damages for head trauma and lasting post-concussion ailments (including CTE, which can only be found posthumously). In general, their claims are that those leagues failed to warn players of the dangers, or did not properly treat their concussions. Hundreds of millions of dollars could be at stake.

UNDENIABLE: McKee’s brain studies already have active players of any number of sports wondering if they are walking around with degenerative damage caused by concussions, and the leagues are desperate to prevent an exodus of kids participating in contact sports, with many parents already deciding to hold their children out because of fear of brain injury.

“I unequivocally think there’s a link between playing football and CTE,” McKee said. “…The fact that over five years I’ve been able to accumulate this number of cases in football players, it cannot be rare. In fact, I think we are going to be surprised at how common it is.”

TELL IT TO THE UNION: Meanwhile, in Vancouver, B.C. Supreme Court Judge Christopher Hinkson ruled that retired star receiver Arland Bruce III’s concussion lawsuit against the B.C. Lions, Montreal Alouettes and former commissioner Mark Cohon belongs in arbitration because the CFL Players Association is the exclusive bargaining agent for players, and therefore Bruce’s claims should be presented in the form of a grievance, per the collective bargaining agreement.

That looks like a victory for the league, but it may be temporary. Bruce’s lawyer Robyn Wishart — who also represents claimants (seven named, so far) in a separate class-action lawsuit against the CFL — told The Vancouver Sun’s Mike Beamish that she plans to appeal.

Wishart said the CBA doesn’t relieve clubs from long-term injury costs if they are caused by negligence, which is what Bruce is alleging.

WIDEMAN REDUX: Further to arbitrator James Oldham’s decision last week to cut Calgary Flames defenceman Dennis Wideman’s 20-game suspension in half: If Oldham based that on the league’s failure to show Wideman meant to injure linesman Don Henderson by cross-checking him from behind, that’s probably fair. Wideman clearly intended to hit him, but who knew Henderson would be concussed?

Intent to injure, though, is like art. It’s in the eye of the beholder. Did Todd Bertuzzi intend to end Steve Moore’s career, or just punch him in the head, the way so many players get punched in the head? The broken neck and possibly permanent concussion symptoms surely were unintended consequences. The severity of Moore’s injury is why Bertuzzi got the heavy suspension — and eventually had to pay an undisclosed but no doubt significant sum of money in settlement of a $68-million civil suit.

If Wideman’s hit results in Henderson being unable to resume his career, a civil suit might well be the linesman’s next avenue.

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